Method for transmitting data in a wireless communication system and system thereof

ABSTRACT

A method for transmitting data in an LTE system including a User Equipment (UE) and an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) includes: transmitting a MAC protocol data unit (PDU) from the E-UTRAN to the UE; receiving the MAC PDU and beginning counting a predetermined time by the UE; sending a scheduling request (SR) from the UE to the E-UTRAN after the predetermined time; receiving the scheduling request (SR) and allocating an uplink resource in response to the scheduling request (SR) by the E-UTRAN; and transmitting data from the UE to the E-UTRAN via the uplink resource.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a divisional application of U.S. application Ser. No.12/485,914, filed on Jun. 17, 2009, the contents of which are entirelyincluded herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a method for transmitting data, andmore particularly, a method for transmitting data in a wirelesscommunication system and a system thereof.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Long Term Evolution (LTE) is being developed by the 3rd GenerationPartnership Project (3GPP) and moving towards creating more efficientcommunication systems. In 3GPP TS 36.321 specification for LTE MACprotocol, dynamic resource allocation for uplink transmissions has beenintroduced for improving the efficient utilization of the radioresources between a user equipment (UE) and a Node B, i.e. a basestation in an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network(E-UTRAN). With the dynamic resource allocation, the radio resources areallocated only when the UE has data to transmit so that the radioresources for data transmission can be saved.

In an LTE system, an uplink scheduler assigns transmission resources(resource blocks) to mobile terminals in that cell. In order to performthese tasks, the scheduler needs information at least about theterminals' current buffer state: that is, if and how much data theterminal buffers have in its priority queues. The 3GPP TS 36.321standard specifies certain behaviors in sections 5.4.4 (SchedulingRequest) and 5.4.5 (Buffer Status Reporting). The Scheduling Request isfor requesting uplink resources: when a Scheduling Request is triggeredand no uplink resources are allocated for the UE, the E-UTRAN willinitiate a procedure to grant uplink resources. The Buffer Statusreporting procedure, on the other hand, provides the E-UTRAN withinformation about the amount of data remaining in the uplink buffers ofthe UE. A Buffer Status report shall be triggered if (as one of severalpossible conditions) a Buffer Status report is determined to be pendingand the UE has uplink resources allocated; if uplink resources are notalready allocated, a Scheduling Request shall be triggered.

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary signaling diagram 1000 illustrating an uplinkdata transmission from a User Equipment (UE) 1100 to an EvolvedUniversal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) 1200 in an LTEsystem, according to the current convention. The UE 1100 comprises aRadio Link Control (RLC) layer 1110 and a Medium Access Control andPhysical (MAC/PHY) layer 1120. Similarly, the E-UTRAN 1200 comprises anRLC layer 1210 and a MAC/PHY layer 1220. In the mentioned figure andexample, the RLC 1110 of the UE 1100 initiates a transmission of RLCdata PDUs 1-5 (indicated at 1300), and sends a data transmission requestto the MAC/PHY layer 1120 (indicated at 1310). The MAC/PHY layer 1120notes that an uplink resource is already allocated (indicated at 1320)for the UE 1100, and thus sends a confirmation signal to the RLC 1110 soas to confirm that data transmission may begin (indicated at 1330).Following this, the RLC 1110 respectively sends the five RLC data PDUs,i.e. RLC data PDUs 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, (indicated at 1340 a-e) to theMAC/PHY 1120. After receiving the five RLC data PDUs, the MAC/PHY 1120converts them as MAC PDUs and then sends them to the MAC/PHY layer 1220of the E-UTRAN 1200 respectively. In addition, the MAC/PHY 1120 packagesa Buffer Status Report (BSR), which indicates the UE transmission bufferis now empty, into the MAC PDU 5 so as to inform the E-UTRAN 1200 thatthe information to be sent has been sent. Upon receiving the emptybuffer information, the MAC/PHY 1220 closes the uplink resource(indicated at 1360), and the final RLC data PDU 5 is received by the RLC1210 of the E-UTRAN 1200 (indicated at 1350 e).

From the standpoint of E-UTRAN 1200, the RLC data PDUs 1, 2, and 5 arereceived successfully (indicated at 1350 a, 1350 b, and 1350 e), but theRLC data PDUs 3 and 4 are not received by the MAC/PHY 1220 (indicated at1350 c and 1350 d). Therefore, the RLC 1210 needs to transmit an RLCstatus (control) PDU (indicated at 1400) to relay the acknowledgement(“received”) of the RLC data PDUs 1, 2, and 5 and the negativeacknowledgement (“not received”) of the RLC data PDUs 3 and 4. The RLCstatus (control) PDU is sent (indicated at 1410 a) and received by theRLC 1110 (indicated at 1420 a).

After receiving the RLC status (control) PDU, the RLC 1110 needs toretransmit the RLC data PDUs 3 and 4 (indicated at 1500), and makes adata transmission request to the MAC/PHY 1120 (indicated at 1510).Because the uplink resource was stopped previously in step 1360, theMAC/PHY 1120 does not have sufficient uplink resources allocated for thedata retransmission (indicated at 1520). Between the MAC/PHY 1120 of theUE 1100 and the MAC/PHY 1220 of the E-UTRAN 1200, steps 1530 through1540 involve a Scheduling Request from the MAC/PHY 1120 to the MAC/PHY1220 (indicated at 1530), to which the response is an uplink resourceallocated by the MAC/PHY 1220 (indicated at 1540). Alternatively, theMAC/PHY 1220 may allocate the uplink resource in response to a BufferStatus Report (indicated at 1550 and 1560). When the MAC/PHY 1120 notesthat the uplink resource has been allocated (indicated at 1600), it willsend a confirmation signal to the RLC 1110 to confirm that dataretransmission for RLC data PDUs 3 and 4 may begin (indicated at 1610).

During the time consumed by sending Scheduling Request and Buffer StatusReport by the MAC/PHY 1120 and waiting for uplink resource allocationfrom the MAC/PHY 1220 (indicated at 1530 through 1560), the RLC 1110must wait for the data transmission confirmation (indicated at 1610)before it may begin retransmitting the RLC data PDUs 3 and 4 (indicatedat 1620 a-b) to the RLC 1210 of the E-UTRAN 1200 (indicated at 1630a-b).

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary signaling diagram 3000 illustrating a downlinkdata transmission from an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio AccessNetwork (E-UTRAN) to a User Equipment (UE) in an LTE system, accordingto the current convention. Using substantially the same UE 1100 andE-UTRAN 1200 (and their components) as originally introduced in FIG. 1,the downlink data transmission interaction of FIG. 3 begins with the RLC1210 of the E-UTRAN 1200 transmitting RLC data PDUs 1-5 (indicated at3330). The RLC 1210 sends the RLC data PDUs 1-5 (indicated at 3310 a-e)through the MAC/PHY 1220, the MAC/PHY 1120 to the RLC 1110. In thisexample, the RLC data PDUs 1, 3, 4, and 5 are received successfully(indicated at 3320 a, 3320 c, 3320 d and 3320 e), but the RLC data PDU 2is not received by the RLC 1110 (indicated at 3310 b). The RLC data PDU5 also includes polling, signifying the end of transmitted data(indicated at 3320 e).

Because of the missing RLC data PDU 2, the RLC 1110 initiates atransmission of an RLC status (control) PDU (indicated at 3400) andsends a data transmission request to the MAC/PHY 1120 (indicated at3410). After receiving the data transmission request, the MAC/PHY 1120notes that there is no sufficient uplink resource allocated fortransmitting the RLC status (control) PDU (indicated at 3420) and thussends a Scheduling Request (SR) to the MAC/PHY 1220 of the E-UTRAN 1200(indicated at 3430). In response to the Scheduling Request, the MAC/PHY1220 allocates an uplink resource to the MAC/PHY 1120 (indicated at3440). Alternatively, the MAC/PHY 1220 may allocate the uplink resourcein response to a Buffer Status Report sent by the MAC/PHY 1120(indicated at 3450 and 3460). Once the uplink resource is allocated(indicated at 3500), the MAC/PHY 1120 confirms that data transmission isready to the RLC 1110 (indicated at 3510) so that the RLC 1110 beginssending the RLC status PDU (indicated at 3520) through the MAC/PHY 1120,the MAC/PHY 1220 to the RLC 1210 of the E-UTRAN 1200 (indicated at3530). In response to the RLC status PDU, the RLC 1210 retransmits theoriginally missing RLC data PDU 2 to the RLC 1110 of the UE 1100(indicated at 3540 to 3560).

Once more, the time is consumed by sending Scheduling Request and BufferStatus Report by the MAC/PHY 1120 and waiting for uplink resourceallocation from the MAC/PHY 1220 (indicated at 3430 through 3460), andthe RLC 1110 of UE 1100 must wait for confirmation to send its RLCstatus PDU to the E-UTRAN 1200.

As illustrated in FIG. 1 and FIG. 3, it is understood that the dynamicresource allocation has the drawback that UE has to request fortransmission resources and wait for the uplink resource allocation if nosufficient radio resources are allocated by E-UTRAN, and this causes adelay before its data can be transmitted, slowing down the overallcommunication between the UE and the E-UTRAN.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore an objective of the present invention to solve theaforementioned problems, and to provide methods for transmitting data ina wireless communication system including a User Equipment (UE) and aradio access network (RAN).

A method according to one embodiment of the present invention comprisesthe following steps. Firstly, the RAN transmits a MAC protocol data unit(PDU) to the UE. Afterwards, the UE returns an acknowledgement signal inresponse to the MAC PDU. When the RAN receives the acknowledgementsignal, it allocates an uplink resource for the UE to transmit data.

A method according to another embodiment of the present inventioncomprises the following steps. Firstly, the RAN transmits a MAC protocoldata unit (PDU) to the UE. After receiving the MAC PDU, the UE beginscounting a predetermined time and sends a scheduling request (SR) to theRAN after the predetermined time. When the RAN receives the schedulingrequest (SR), it allocates an uplink resource for the UE to transmitdata.

A wireless communication system according one embodiment of the presentinvention comprises a radio access network (RAN) for transmitting a MACprotocol data unit (PDU, and a User Equipment (UE) for returning anacknowledgement signal in response to the MAC PDU. When the radio accessnetwork (RAN) receives the acknowledgement signal, it allocates anuplink resource in response to the acknowledgement signal, and the UEtransmits data to the RAN via the uplink resource.

These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt becomeobvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading thefollowing detailed description of the preferred embodiment that isillustrated in the various figures and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a more complete understanding of the present invention, and theadvantages thereof, reference is now made to the following descriptionstaken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 shows a signaling diagram illustrating an uplink datatransmission from a User Equipment (UE) to an Evolved UniversalTerrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) in an LTE system, accordingto the current convention.

FIG. 2 shows a signaling diagram illustrating an uplink datatransmission from a User Equipment (UE) to an Evolved UniversalTerrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) in an LTE system, accordingto an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 shows a signaling diagram illustrating a downlink datatransmission from an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network(E-UTRAN) to a User Equipment (UE) in an LTE system, according to thecurrent convention.

FIG. 4 shows a signaling diagram illustrating a downlink datatransmission from an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network(E-UTRAN) to a User Equipment (UE) in an LTE system, according toanother embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 shows a flowchart illustrating a method for transmitting databetween a User Equipment (UE) and an Evolved Universal Terrestrial RadioAccess Network (E-UTRAN) in an LTE system, according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 6 shows a flowchart illustrating a method for transmitting databetween a User Equipment (UE) and an Evolved Universal Terrestrial RadioAccess Network (E-UTRAN) in a LTE system, according to anotherembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram of a User Equipment (UE) and an Evolved UniversalTerrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) as a communication system,according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Corresponding numerals and symbols in the different figures generallyrefer to corresponding parts unless otherwise indicated. The figures aredrawn to clearly illustrate the relevant aspects of the preferredembodiments and are not necessarily drawn to scale.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Certain terms are used throughout the following description and claimsto refer to particular system components. As one skilled in the art willappreciate, manufacturers may refer to a component by different names.This document does not intend to distinguish between components thatdiffer in name but not function. In the following discussion and in theclaims, the terms “including” and “comprising” are used in an open-endedfashion, and thus should be interpreted to mean “including, but notlimited to . . . ”.

Referring now to FIG. 2, the signaling diagram 2000 illustrates anuplink data transmission from a User Equipment (UE) 2100 to an EvolvedUniversal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) 2200 in an LTEsystem. The UE 2100 comprises a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer 2110 anda Medium Access Control and Physical (MAC/PHY) layer 2120. The E-UTRAN2200 comprises an RLC layer 2210 and a MAC/PHY layer 2220. In thisembodiment, the UE 2100 respectively sends five RLC data PDUs 1, 2, 3, 4and 5 to the E-UTRAN 2200 and the RLC data PDUs 3 and 4 are not receivedsuccessfully by the PHY/MAC 2220 of the E-UTRAN 2200. The procedures,e.g. the data transmission request and confirmation, the conversion fromthe RLC data PDU to MAC PDU and the stop of uplink resource allocationdue to BSR (buffer=0), proceeded prior to the RLC 2210 sending a RLCstatus (control) PDU are identical to those illustrated in FIG. 1 andthus not illustrated in detail.

From the standpoint of E-UTRAN 2200, the RLC data PDUs 1, 2, and 5 arereceived successfully, but the RLC data PDUs 3 and 4 are not received bythe MAC/PHY 2220. Therefore, the RLC 2210 of the E-UTRAN 2200 sends anRLC status (control) PDU, which includes the acknowledgement(“received”) of the RLC data PDUs 1, 2, and 5 and the negativeacknowledgement (“not received”) of the RLC data PDUs 3 and 4, to theRLC 2110 of the UE 2100 (indicated at 2410, 2420 and 2430). In thetransmission procedure, the RLC status (control) PDU is received andconverted to a MAC PDU 1 by the PHY/MAC 2220 and then transmitted to thePHY/MAC 2120 of the UE 2100 (indicated at 2420). When receiving the MACPDU 1, the PHY/MAC 2120 converts it back to the RLC status (control) PDUand sends it to the RLC 2110 (indicated at 2430).

Following the transmission of the RLC status (control) PDU, the MAC/PHY2120 returns a Level 1 (L1) Hybrid Automatic Repeat ReQuest (HARQ)Acknowledgement (ACK), in response to the MAC PDU 1 transmitted by theMAC/PHY 2220, to the MAC/PHY 2220 (indicated at 2510).

However, in this stage of the communication, the RLC 2210 of the E-UTRAN2200 is expecting a retransmission from the UE 2100 for the missing RLCdata PDUs 3 and 4, which are not successfully received by the E-UTRAN2200. Therefore, when the MAC/PHY 2220 of the E-UTRAN 2200 receives theHARQ ACK from the UE 2100 according to the present invention, it willallocate uplink resource(s) for the UE 2100 to retransmit the expecteddata, i.e. the RLC data PDUs 3 and 4. In this scenario, the uplinkresource is allocated by the E-UTRAN 2200 according to the HARQ ACK fromthe MAC/PHY 2120. In other embodiment, the uplink resource can beallocated further according to the RLC data PDU 5, which contains theBSR trigger. Meanwhile, the RLC 2110 initiates a retransmission of theRLC data PDUs 3 and 4 (indicated at 2500), and sends a data transmissionrequest to the MAC/PHY 2120 (indicated at 2530). Due to the pre-emptivenature of this embodiment of the present invention, the uplink resourcehas already been allocated by the E-UTRAN 2200 so that the RLC data PDUs3 and 4 can be retransmitted from the RLC 2110 to the RLC 2210(indicated at 2540 a-b and 2550 a-b) with a much shorter delay thanpreviously done in prior art as illustrated in FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 shows a signaling diagram 4000 illustrating a downlink datatransmission from an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network(E-UTRAN) 2200 to a User Equipment (UE) 2100 in an LTE system, accordingto another embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, theE-UTRAN 2200 respectively sends five RLC data PDUs 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 tothe UE 2100 and the RLC data PDU 2 is not received successfully by thePHY/MAC 2120 of the UE 2100. In the transmission procedure, the five RLCdata PDUs 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 are received and respectively converted toMAC PDUs 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 by the PHY/MAC 2220 and then transmitted tothe PHY/MAC 2120 of the UE 2100. When receiving the MAC PDUs 1, 3, 4 and5 (MAC PDU 2 misses), the PHY/MAC 2120 converts them back to the RLCdata PDUs 1, 3, 4 and 5 and sends them to the RLC 2110 respectively. TheRLC data PDU 5 also includes polling, signifying the end of transmitteddata.

Following the successful transmission of the RLC data PDUs 1, 3, 4 and5, the MAC/PHY 2120 returns a Level 1 (L1) Hybrid Automatic RepeatReQuest (HARQ) Acknowledgement (ACK), in response to the MAC PDU 5 (withpolling), to the MAC/PHY 2220 (indicated at 4410). When the MAC/PHY 2220of the E-UTRAN 2200 receives the HARQ ACK from the UE 2100 according tothe present invention, it will allocate uplink resource(s) for the UE2100 to transmit the expected data. Meanwhile, the RLC 2110 initiatesthe transmission of a RLC status PDU (indicated at 4400), which includesthe negative acknowledgement (“not received”) of the RLC data PDU 2, andsends a data transmission request to the MAC/PHY 2120 (indicated at4430). Due to the pre-emptive nature of this embodiment of the presentinvention, the uplink resource has already been allocated by the E-UTRAN2200 so that the RLC status PDU can be transmitted from the RLC 2110 tothe RLC 2210 (indicated at 2560 a-b) with a much shorter delay thanpreviously done in prior art as illustrated in FIG. 3. After receivingthe RLC status PDU, the RLC 2210 of the E-UTRAN 2200 retransmits the RLCdata PDU 2 to the RLC 2110 of the UE 2100 (indicated at 2570 a-b).

From the improvements made by the present invention over the prior arts,the delay time experienced by the RLC 2110 of the UE 2100 is greatlyreduced, further heightening the efficiency of the communications in theLTE system.

Yet another embodiment of the present invention defines the BufferStatus reporting from the 3GPP TS 36.321 description presented earlierto include information about negatively acknowledged data: thespecification does not explicitly state whether negatively acknowledgeddata should be counted in the buffer status report (BSR). As such, thisembodiment comprises receiving a BSR for a UE transmission buffer fromthe UE, at which time the E-UTRAN expects the RLC data PDUretransmission and allocates an uplink resource appropriately. In yetanother embodiment, the E-UTRAN expects an RLC data PDU retransmissionand allocates an uplink resource appropriately after receiving a BSR fora UE transmission buffer from the UE, where the BSR contains both a UEtransmission buffer and a UE retransmission buffer.

In another embodiment, please referring to FIG. 2 and FIG. 4, if theE-UTRAN 2200 does not allocate an uplink resource to the UE 2100 inresponse to the HARQ ACK within a predetermined time, the MAC/PHY 2120of the UE 2100 may automatically transmit a scheduling request (SR) tothe E-UTRAN 2200 for requesting the uplink resource allocation from theE-UTRAN 2200 after the predetermined time. The predetermined time may beimplemented differently according to design and requirements. In thisembodiment, the predetermined time can be set and begin counting whenthe MAC/PHY 2120 transmits the HARQ ACK to the E-UTRAN 2200. In otherembodiment according to the present invention, the predetermined timemay be set and begin when the UE 2100 receives a MAC PDU, which includesa RLC status PDU or a negative acknowledgement (“not received”) of atleast one RLC data PDU. And there is no limitation in the presentinvention that this predetermined time must be set by a specific device:it can be configured by either the E-UTRAN 2200 or the UE 2100, asneeded by the designer's specs.

It should be noted that although the above embodiments specificallyrefer to a User Equipment (UE) and an Evolved Universal TerrestrialRadio Access Network (E-UTRAN) in the signaling diagrams and examples,this should in no way be construed to be a limitation of the presentinvention: they are intended for illustrative purposes only. Inaddition, while specifications from the 3GPP TS 36.231 standard havebeen mentioned, they are pointed to only as an example of a situationwhere an implementation of the specification would benefit greatly frommethods of the present invention. Thus, the present invention can beapplied to any wireless communications system which experiences a delaysuch as the examples provided, and such applications and embodimentsalso obey the spirit of and should be considered with the scope of thepresent invention.

FIG. 5 shows a basic flowchart 500 illustrating a method fortransmitting data between an UE and an E-UTRAN in an LTE system,according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment,the UE can be any portable hand-held devices, e.g. mobile phones or PDAphones, with wireless communication functions. Provided thatsubstantially the same result is achieved, the steps of the processflowchart need not be in the exact order shown and need not becontiguous; that is, other steps can be intermediate. Please refer toFIGS. 2, 4 and 5: this embodiment of the method according to the presentinvention includes the following steps:

Step 510: The MAC/PHY 2220 of the E-UTRAN 2200 transmits a MAC protocoldata unit (PDU) to the MAC/PHY 2120 of the UE 2100. The MAC protocoldata unit (PDU) may be the MAC PDU 1 including a negativeacknowledgement (“not received”) of at least one RLC data PDU sent bythe UE 2100 as shown in FIG. 2, or the MAC PDU 5 converted from the RLCdata PDU 5 (polling) as shown in FIG. 4.

Step 520: The MAC/PHY 2120 of the UE 2100 returns an acknowledgementsignal in response to the MAC PDU. The acknowledgement signal may be theHARQ ACK shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 4.

Step 530: The MAC/PHY 2220 of the E-UTRAN 2200 receives theacknowledgement signal and allocates an uplink resource (indicated at2520 in FIG. 2 and at 4420 in FIG. 4) in response to the acknowledgementsignal.

Step 540: The data can be transmitted from the UE 2100 to the E-UTRAN2200 via the allocated uplink resource. The data may be the RLC dataPDUs 3 and 4 shown in FIG. 2 and the RLC status PDU shown in FIG. 4transmitted from the UE 2100 to the E-UTRAN 2200.

FIG. 6 shows a basic flowchart 600 illustrating a method fortransmitting data between an UE and an E-UTRAN in an LTE system,according to another embodiment of the present invention. Please referto FIGS. 2, 4 and 6: this embodiment of the method according to thepresent invention includes the following steps:

Step 610: The MAC/PHY 2220 of the E-UTRAN 2200 transmits a MAC protocoldata unit (PDU) to the MAC/PHY 2120 of the UE 2100. The MAC protocoldata unit (PDU) may be the MAC PDU 1 including a negativeacknowledgement (“not received”) of at least one RLC data PDU sent bythe UE 2100 as shown in FIG. 2, or the MAC PDU 5 converted from the RLCdata PDU 5 (polling) as shown in FIG. 4.

Step 620: The MAC/PHY 2120 of the UE 2100 receives the MAC PDU andbegins counting a predetermined time.

Step 630: The MAC/PHY 2120 of the UE 2100 sends a scheduling request(SR) to the MAC/PHY 2220 of the E-UTRAN 2200 after the predeterminedtime (not shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 4).

Step 640: The MAC/PHY 2220 of the E-UTRAN 2200 receives the schedulingrequest (SR) and allocates an uplink resource in response to thescheduling request (SR).

Step 650: The data can be transmitted from the UE 2100 to the E-UTRAN2200 via the allocated uplink resource. The data may be the RLC dataPDUs 3 and 4 shown in FIG. 2 and the RLC status PDU shown in FIG. 4transmitted from the UE 2100 to the E-UTRAN 2200.

It should be noted that the E-UTRAN 2200 according the present inventionmay include a Node B, i.e. a base station, for implementing all thefunctions implemented by the E-UTRAN as described in the above-mentionedembodiments of FIG. 2 and FIG. 4.

FIG. 7 is a diagram of a User Equipment (UE) and an Evolved UniversalTerrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) as a wireless communicationsystem 6000, according to an embodiment of the present invention. Asshown, the wireless communication system 6000 comprises a User Equipment(UE) 6100 and an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network(E-UTRAN) 6200. The UE 6100 comprises a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer6110 and a Medium Access Control and Physical (MAC/PHY) layer 6120, andthe E-UTRAN 6200 comprises an RLC layer 6210 and a MAC/PHY layer 6220.As the methods described above, in their various embodiments, havealready covered the functionalities and utilizations of the UE 6100, RLC6110, MAC/PHY 6220, E-UTRAN 6200, RLC 6210, and MAC/PHY 6220, furtherdescription is omitted.

Also, although the present invention and its advantages have beendescribed in detail, it should be understood that various changes,substitutions and alterations can be made herein without departing fromthe spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.For example, many of the processes discussed above can be implemented indifferent methodologies and replaced by other processes, or acombination thereof.

Moreover, the scope of the present application is not intended to belimited to the particular embodiments of the systems, methods and stepsdescribed in the specification. As one of ordinary skill in the art willreadily appreciate from the disclosure of the present invention,systems, methods, or steps, presently existing or later to be developed,that perform substantially the same function or achieve substantiallythe same result as the corresponding embodiments described herein may beutilized according to the present invention. Accordingly, the appendedclaims are intended to include within their scope such systems, methods,or steps.

Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerousmodifications and alterations of the device and method may be made whileretaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the abovedisclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and boundsof the appended claims.

1. A method for transmitting data in an LTE system including a UserEquipment (UE) and an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network(E-UTRAN), the method comprising: transmitting a MAC protocol data unit(PDU) from the E-UTRAN to the UE; receiving the MAC PDU and beginningcounting a predetermined time by the UE; sending a scheduling request(SR) from the UE to the E-UTRAN after the predetermined time; receivingthe scheduling request (SR) and allocating an uplink resource inresponse to the scheduling request (SR) by the E-UTRAN; and transmittingdata from the UE to the E-UTRAN via the uplink resource.
 2. The methodof claim 1, wherein the UE comprises a first Radio Link Control (RLC)layer and a first Medium Access Control and Physical (MAC/PHY) layer,and the E-UTRAN comprises a second Radio Link Control (RLC) layer and asecond Medium Access Control and Physical (MAC/PHY) layer; and step oftransmitting a MAC protocol data unit (PDU) from the RAN to the UEfurther comprises: transmitting the MAC protocol data unit (PDU) fromthe second MAC/PHY layer of the E-UTRAN to the first MAC/PHY layer ofthe UE.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the MAC PDU includes anegative acknowledgement of at least one RLC Data PDU sent by the firstRLC layer of the UE.
 4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:converting a RLC data PDU of the second RLC layer into the MAC PDU bythe second MAC/PHY.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the E-UTRANincludes a Node B for implementing the steps of transmitting the MACprotocol data unit (PDU) and the step of receiving the schedulingrequest (SR) and allocating the uplink resource.